Review
In spite of the title this book certainly is
of interest for student of the Zarma language
and culture. The songhay spoken by the Kaado living in
the region of Niger to the west of the Niger
river north of Niamey is quit similar to the
Zarma. Although songhay and Zarma differ in
their discourse, their languages, culture
and history are closely linked, more or less
comparable to England and the USA, that certain
researchers attribute them the same origin
(see
Bornand, 2005, page 42).The authors
intend « to provide a modest contribution
to the notion of man in black Africa » through
stories told by Zarma's themsleves. The book is
bi-lingual. The text on the left hand page is
always in songhay and on the right hand page in
French. The authors strived for getting across
texts purely by all means and say to have done
theirs utmost to prevent interpretation of
texts. The French text is not a literal
translation, but a literary translation. And
translation always is, at least partly,
interpretation.
The songhay text
is written in a somewhat different manner
than the Zarma in the course « Cawyan Zarma
sanni » or in the Peace Corps dictionary
(see Figure below), but this should not be a
problem after you have finished this course.
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Structure of the book
This book, with a foreword by
G. Manessy, starts with an
introduction of
R. Nicolaï about the land,
the people, the interpreters and their
context, and the way in which this project
has been carried out.
The book also contains a short
introduction (3 pages and 2 maps) by the
authors, four parts, a bibliography and a
table of contents. Each part deals with a
topic and consist of several chapters.
The first part is about similarities and
contrast and consists of seven chapters
discussing the following subjects: the
elements that form a person, the different
part of the body, the differences between
man and woman, the differences between
Blacks and Whites, the differences
between humans and invisible beings, the
differences between man an animal and
ailments, mental failing, and illness. Two
subjects are discussed in more detail,
invisible beings and animals. With regard to
invisible beings, a description is given of
them, the bonds between humans and invisible
beings is discussed and the possession of
men and women by spirits is described. With
regards to animals, not only the differences
are discussed, but also the bonds between
man and animal. In addition a description of
the distribution of the pieces of the
slaughtered animals is given.
The second part deals with deeds and
rites. It concerns deeds or acts that
provoke shame, that are reserved to certain
circumstances and acts of affection. The
rites discussed are those concerning the
circumcision (male) and the infertility.
The word by the « Kaado » is handled in
the third part. Discussed are the taboos
concerning the word, the word and silence
and the power and efficacy of the word.
Special topics are the language of the
animals, that used between themselves and
with humans, and the language of the
invisible beings, also that used between
themselves and with humans.
The fourth and last part of the book
looks like a mix of a dictionary and an
encyclopaedia. There are four chapters about
the human body and two about idiom. The
first chapter shows on each right hand page
a picture of (a part of) the human body with
a number attached to each body part and on
the left hand page the number and songhay
and French word for this body part. The
second chapter list all body parts
alphabetically (songhay) and this list
includes expressions containing names of
body parts. In this case both the literal
translations and the interpreted translation
are given. The third chapter also gives an
alphabetically ordered list of songhay words
that has to do with what the body does or
is, for example, alcirka = to have
breakfast, taŋgam = to fight
(against). A list of illnesses is given in
alphabetically (songhay) order in the fourth
chapter. Both the literal translations and
the interpreted translation are given. For a
lot of the illnesses the traditional way of
healing is described briefly. Chapter five
lists expression regularly used in songhay,
while chapter six lists proverbs. For
expression both the literal translations and
the interpreted translation are given. For
proverbs the interpreted translation is
given, as well as the meaning of it.
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Text on back flap
To the question: « Will
it be good for our children, for the others,
all the others, say that, the way that we
know the world, life, that we are organised,
our way of being songhay is passed on? »,
posed by Adama Sey to the elderly of the
village, they responded: « Yes ».
The collected texts thus have a profound
originality. It is a question of a
« contract ». Once the need of transfer was
recognised and approved, Adama collected the
stories of the Elderly in order to hand them
over to Marie-Claire Charles and Jean-Maire
Ducroz, who have, for their part,
transcribed these – still in songhay – to
make the present work: a self portrait of
the songhay man, making it possible to
distinguish specific characters of their
culture and to comprehend their view of the
world.
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